However,
many art and cultural museums are currently run by and for the 1%.
Economic interests dictate what art is accessible, successful, and
desirable. Institutions often have board members who are part of the 1%.
Galleries and museums increasingly operate as profit-driven business.
In this system, money and power define what is art, and what is not.
This system is cutting into the livelihoods of artists and art workers,
and has emaciated the breadth of art available to the public.

Occupy
Museums seeks to occupy our art galleries, museums and cultural
institutions with the ideas, values, histories and art of the 99%. Like
our government, which no longer represents the people, museums have
sold out to the highest bidder. We are a direct action group within the
Occupy Wall Street movement. We bring attention to the most glaring
problems within the current system and imagine alternatives. At Occupy
Wall Street, we are taking the steps toward a future where our cultural
commons are truly shared not hoarded by the few.

"... Occupy Museums raises
important questions. Why, for instance, does our highly developed art
scene ignore important issues of financial and social justice yet
deliver up spot paintings to great acclaim? Why cannot museums function
as contemporary commons, rather than as reputation-laundering facilities
for hedge-fund managers and corporations?"

...

"If you want to restore your sense that change is possible in the art
world, I recommend that you check out Occupy Museums ... If
you're too cold or old to come out to an action, or if you own a Damien Hirst, just pass this information on."

...

just thought I'd throw those bits into the ring for you all to mull over

(that's what I get up to on my pretend days off!)

ps - this Saturday March 17 (aka St Pats Day) all Gnomes and their friends are invited to

find me here also

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This work by Rhonda Ayliffe is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
this means you can freely share what you find here as long as you correctly attribute the work to me (ie tell the world its something created by 'Rhonda Ayliffe') and link to the source.... but you can't make derivative works or try to sell my creative work (which is not playing nice wot!)